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This is sort of tongue in cheek but half-serious...
I'm here to speak out today against the barrel-jack. I have a pair of JCR basses that have a recessed cavity that the jacks are mounted in. This was annoying because it meant that I have to use straight jacks instead of the right angle jacks I use for every other instrument.
So I took the instruments into a local repairman and had him swap them out for barrel jacks that extend to the end of the recessed cavity and allow me to use my trusty right angle jacks.
When I got the instruments home, I quickly discovered that the barrel jacks don’t grip the jacks very tightly and since I put my cable through the strap to anchor it, the slight pressure exerted by the strap causes the cable to constantly come loose.
After a few days of continually having this issue, I tried some straight cables and found that they worked slightly better. However, there’s another problem. The battery tip inside the barrel connector also does not make good contact and periodically, the bad connection to the battery tip causes the power capacitor in the preamp to discharge and the sound gradually fades out until I jiggle the jack and get everything to make contact again.
Unfortunately, because the recessed cavity is at about a 30 degree angle, I can’t use the football shaped jack plate or the squar, les paul style jack plate because the connector won’t fit into the cavity when it’s sitting on a plate that is flush to the body edge.
So, I am going to ask my repairman to swap it out and back to the original design and just live with always having to use straight connectors with these basses. (And, because the barrel connector is recessed, I can’t reach the inside portion of the barrel jack myself so I have to get a repairman to do the swap out!
The first photo is the original jack, the second the barrel jack that my repairman installed.
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05-04-2022 03:30 PM
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How about a cable with straight plug and then a right angle plug adapter?
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Yes, I think that should work. Another possibility would be a short dongle... but first I need to get a reliable jack installed into the instrument.
Originally Posted by JohanAbrandt
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There are right angle plugs with extended tips for exactly this purpose, e,g, this one from AMX Audio:
Unless your recess is unusually deep, it should work.
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My original post explains why you can't use a regular jack plate. The recess in the bass is at an angle and the jack cannot sit at a right angle to the mount because of that... Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
There are right angle plugs with extended tips for exactly this purpose, e,g, this one from AMX Audio:
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Hamer used to use surface mounted barrel jacks. Some cables/jacks worked better than others. The symptom would be intermittent loss of signal. It happened to me and a different cable helped. If you Google Hamer Fan Club barrel jack there should be old threads
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since i first started mentioning this issue, i've heard back from a lot of repair guys. Many of them said that one of the most common repairs they do is on acoustic guitars with barrel jacks... Originally Posted by 73Fender
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I saw that. But these have extended necks on the actual 1/4” shaft with narrow shoulders to keep them from being inserted beyond proper depth. Unless your picture is grossly foreshortened, it looks to me like the extension on the AMX is long enough and the plug body narrow enough to clear the body of the instrument. For $4.49 I’d be inclined to give it a try. I can’t find dimensions on their website, and mine (if I even still have them - cords have a high vapor pressure on blues gigs) are at the bottom of a gear bag in my storage locker because I no longer need them. You might call AMX and ask how long the extension is. Originally Posted by jzucker
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i don't know what AMX is but i've already tried the tele style jack, the les paul jack and the football style jack and the female jack connector doesn't fit into the hole when it's perpendicular to the body. It can only fit at an angle unless the recess is chiseled out which I don't want to do... Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
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It seems that I've done all I can do here, so Originally Posted by jzucker
PS: You seem to be anatomically confused, Jack. I hope the following diagram is of help to you with this problem, as it could have ramifications well beyond instrument cables:
MALE:
FEMALE:
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Nope, i'm not confused. It's the female receiver which does not fit into the recessed hole unless it's at an angle. If you try to insert it into the recessed hole without angling it, the positive tip and battery tip hit the back of the recessed channel. So you'd have to carve out some space to make it fit. Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
It seems that I've done all I can do here, so
PS: You seem to be anatomically confused, Jack. I hope the following diagram is of help to you with this problem, as it could have ramifications well beyond instrument cables:
MALE:
FEMALE:
But now that you mention it, you'd have to carve the opening even deeper to fit the tip of the male jack...
The recessed hole is about a 30 degree angle relative to the side of the body of body....
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As my efforts at humor are both as unsuccessful and unappreciated as my efforts to help find a solution, I surrender! Originally Posted by jzucker
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I hope this helps and isn't just insulting. It seems like you are talking about different things. He is not talking about the jack. He's talking about replacing one of your right angled plugs with a right angled plug with an extended tip so that it can reach into recessed jacks like on a Tele.
The recessed jack on your basses may be too deep for this product, but here's the information. Unfortunately the manufacturer was not savvy enough to show a photograph of the actual plug by itself, which would've made things a lot clearer.
1/4" Nickel Plated Right Angle Tele Plug - AMX Audio
There is a better photo here:
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Hope this helps!
P.S.-
I am always puzzled by how bad the guitar industry is at clearly showcasing its products so that one understands what they do (classic example, demonstrating guitar tone through three pedals into a cranked amp so that you have no actual idea what the guitar sounds like).
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that's not the issue though. The same issues of connectivity of the hot lead and the battery lead happen whether I'm using a straight plug or a right angle plug so having an extended plug is not going to help the issue. Originally Posted by Cunamara
The issue is that the jack itself is designed poorly and doesn't have enough tension to properly grip the plug. This is true regardless of what type of plug you use. And additionally, i've had numerous repair people tell me they have had repeated problems with barrel jacks and that they are "absolute garbage" (quote by Chris Forshage)
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That is a 1/4 inch phone plug and jack. Not a Barrel.
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I'm going to try this one more time because it's painful to watch this unfold. What you need is a right angle plug with a small enough body and a long enough shaft to clear the walls of the recess and connect securely to the original jack despite the depth and angulation of its insertion aperture. From personal experience and what I can see on the AMX Audio website, I believe it's quite possible (if not likely) that the AMX extended right angle stereo plug will do both of these things. The 1/4" shaft is longer than a standard one, and it has a slightly wider collar at the top of the shaft to prevent it from overpenetration. Even if it won't work for you, no guitarists will have been harmed in testing the theory and it will cost you $5. Originally Posted by jzucker
Put the first jack back, Jack. I don't know why you're so dead set against trying this, since it's a $5 part and you've already spent far more on a new jack that doesn't work for you. If the AMX plug doesn't work for this use, you'll have a very nice right angle plug the next time you need one for a guitar with a traditional sidemount jackplate. And as I already suggested once, you could contact them directly to find out the exact dimensions of the plug if $5 seems like too much to risk. You can also confirm that they still sell this in TRS format.
I can't imagine why this seems so wrong to you. You could have done all this in the time you've wasted telling us you think we don't understand your problem. Perhaps the wrong jack has too much tension
[Whoops! Another feeble attempt at humor snuck in when I wasn't looking!]
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I'm going to reply one more time to this because I have explained this 3 times. I have the same issue with a straight plug as with the right angle plug so having a longer shaft is not going to effect anything since I've already proven this with a straight plug which doesn't hit the wall of the recess. When I go back to the original design (which is recessed a good 1.5" into the body of the bass, there is no solution other than: Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
1) Use a dongle or adapter (because no extended right angle jack is long enough to compensate for a 1.5" counter-sink
2) Use a straight end cable (which I've resigned myself to do
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There's new information in the above, although it's a bit suspect. Unless you took that picture with a 1000mm lens from across the living room, it's very hard for me to believe that the recess is 1 1/2" deep: Originally Posted by jzucker
A standard 1/4" plug is only 1 1/4" long, and most of the covers over phone plug handles are no more than 1 1/2" long. So you'd have to yank your cord out of there by the cable if it's really that deep. It's hard to imagine that a luthier would make an instrument that required you to pull out the cable by the wire rather than the plug handle. I suppose it's possible, but it would be very poor design since you'd have a difficult time removing the plug if the wire broke free and came out without the plug when you yanked on it.
You did not say that you have the same problem with straight plugs. What you said exactly is that "This was annoying because it meant that I have to use straight jacks instead of the right angle jacks I use for every other instrument". This was one of your statements that made me include the joke about gender confusion, since you're actually talking about straight plugs here, not jacks. This says (at least to me) that you were able to insert straight plugs into the original jack without difficulty and with solid electrical connection. I'm also assuming that you're referring to the geometry of the connector and not its sexual orientation. If the latter is the case, I have no idea what "right angle" would be, unless it's Peyronie's Disease. [Yes, that's another joke. I'm trying hard to remain light hearted about this.]
So you said quite clearly that you were able to use straight plugs (which you erroneously called jacks) but not right angle plugs (which you also called jacks) in the original jack.
Further confusing the issue is your statement that " i've already tried the tele style jack, the les paul jack and the football style jack and the female jack connector doesn't fit into the hole when it's perpendicular to the body". I assumed you meant plug when you said jack, in this sentence too. The female connector is the one the luthier installed in the hole - you're trying to find a male mate that will fit into the recess in the body of the bass.
Measure the depth of that recess. If it's really 1 1/2", I'd make custom plugs for it. Weld a 2" stem onto a short barrel plug handle that has industrial strength strain relief around the cable. Then the cable will curve itself along the body (assuming you run it up under the strap and over the endpin) and you can push and pull on the stem to insert and remove the plug.
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Jack, I am putting my foot in my mouth but how about installing a mini-XLR socket in the bass and converting the bass-guitar side of your cable to mini-XLR plug?
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I'll see your complaint and raise you these pieces of crap. After the second one failed, I drilled a hole through the front of the bass and installed a regular Jack.
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I think if I had that problem, I'd fit an Electrosocket. I have one in my Tele 7 and it's great! If Jack can't find a plug that works with the recessed jack in his bass, he could have his luthier fit one of these. Originally Posted by vintagelove
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nothing can ruin your day like a cheap output jack on an expensive guitar
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here's the solution I came up with. I ditched the inset and barrel jack altogether. I replaced the mid-range freq selector switch (which I always had in the middle position) with a switchcraft jack.
Now I have an extra hole in the side of the guitar but no more plug/jack issues.
incidentally, the inset hole is .88" from the edge of the body, not 1.5" as I had previously estimated.
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